From ESPN.com:
"I'm going to visit USC this weekend," Jefferson said. "It's an official visit and I'm interested to see what they have to offer. They started calling me again and I just want to see what the coaches have to say.
"Back in the spring, they told me I was the only safety they were going to take and then at the Rising Stars Camp, I find out they're recruiting a bunch of other safeties, so that kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I felt like they should have been more up front about it.
"So we'll see what happens the rest of the way. Like I said, the coaches started talking to me again and USC is still a good school so I'm going to visit and see how it goes. UCLA will then be my last visit and since I'm graduating early, I'll be ready to announce in early January."
To recap, Tony was a silent commit back in Spring but got the cold shoulder during the Rising Stars Camp as the coaches focused more on Dion Bailey and Dietrich Riley. Tony immediately cut talks with SC and committed to UCLA a month later.
Fast forward to present day, SC has a verbal commitment from Dion and Dietrich Riley is being recruited hard to Florida by recent Gator commit, Joshua Shaw; Tennessee has also been in the mix. It still looks like SC is in prime position to land Dietrich, but it's not going to get any easier from here on out with Florida holding an official visit and Joshua talking in his ear all day. No surprise that Coach Morton has started to re-recruit Tony. If SC strikes out on Dietrich and Sean Parker and Tony remains at UCLA, we are left very thin at the safety spots. Next year we'll have Drew McAllister, who's been injured most of the season, and T.J. McDonald, a player that can easily out-grow his position, at the SS spots.
Putting all this context talk aside, Tony has stayed one of my favorite recruits of the 2010 class. Kid can flat out ball and I'd bag him up on his versatility alone. How can you not take a player who is one of the best pure tacklers in this year's class and can legitimately play 3 positions (S, OLB, and RB)? Even worse, how can you let this kid go to your rival school? Even if scholarships were an issue, Tony is slated to graduate in December so SC could have him enroll early and count it against '09 - no problem. As far as I'm concerned, the coaches have completely dropped the ball on this recruitment. Hopefully they can make amends and bring Tony back in.
